Excess Halloween Candy Ideas

Got a little too much of this lying around?  Me, too.  If you need some ideas on how to use it, check out this excellent post by Janet Rudolph of the wonderfully choco-licious blog Dying for Chocolate.  Janet provides more than a dozen creative ways to use it up.

Like using M & M's to make your own trail mix.  Doh!  Why didn't I think of that?!

Panzanella

And to think, until a couple years ago, I'd never even heard of panzanella, also known as bread salad.  Thanks to the wonderful world of blogging, this is now one of my favorite quick summertime meals -- especially once the home-grown tomatoes are flourishing.

Which they are. 

One of the things I love most about this recipe is I usually have all the ingredients on hand.  It takes less than a half hour to throw together. 

And it is delicious.

Did I mention how delicious it is?

In the book Real Simple Celebrations:  Easy Entertaining for Every Occasion, author Valerie Rains suggests that rather than freezing those hot dog and hamburger buns left over from summertime barbecues, you use them in this salad instead.  Brilliant idea.

Here are the instructions based on the recipe from the book:

PANZANELLA (BREAD SALAD)

2 hot dog or hamburger buns, cut into 1-inch pieces

2-4 tomatoes, chopped

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

4 - 8 oz. crumbled feta cheese

1/4 c. thinly sliced basil

1/4 c. olive oil

1 T. balsamic or red wine vinegar

1/4 t. Kosher salt

1/8 t. black papper

Place cut up buns on baking sheet; bake at 375 degrees until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.  In large bowl, combine tomatoes, onion, cheese, and basil.  Add the oil and vinegar.  Season with salt and pepper.  Add the toasted bread and toss.

So is anyone else swimming in tomatoes?

Spaghetti MinceMash

Whenever I make mince there is always too much & we get so full we can't move. There is never enough for another meal or even a lunch for us both. So I put it in the fridge & within the next two days I pad it out, hence Mincemash :-)
An easy way to stretch the mince & change it's taste

Whatever left over mince dish you have
1 x Pepper chopped
4 cloves Garlic chopped
3 large Tomatoes, cored & chopped
1 Oxo cube
6 Mushrooms chopped
Oregano
Basil
Black Pepper
Runner beans part cooked
Prepare runner beans & put on to boil. In a pan put all chopped veg, crumble over oxo cube, add 1/4 pint water & stir. Add herbs & any spices you may like & bring to boil. Cook for 10 mins then add in your leftover mince dish.

Bring back to boiling point & turn down to a simmer, strain & add beans & a little more water if needed. Cook till the beans are till the beans are to your liking
Serve with Spaghetti or pasta.

Blue Cheese Update . . .

. . . because I know you're oh so curious to find out how this

became this.

It wasn't easy.

After the marginal blue cheese bites and the quite wonderful pear and blue cheese salad, there were

these cute little blue cheese tartlets: a buttery crust, blue cheese filling, topped with walnuts. Tasty but not terrific.

Effort expended greater than results achieved.

Next.

Blue cheese salad dressing.

Kahuna: "This tastes a lot like mayonnaise."

Me: "That's because it is mostly mayonnaise."

Note to self: adding cranberry balsamic vinegar with deep red color to white mayonnaise-based blue cheese salad dressing gives food a creepily lumpy-mud look.

Next.

Blue cheese sauce.

To serve over grilled steak.

Easy.

Delicious.

A keeper.

Recipe to come later this week.

Thank you, Kim at Easy French Food, for so generously sharing.

Since the blue cheese sauce recipe made lots, I had plenty left over to experiment with, using a Fettuccine with Blue Cheese Sauce recipe provided by Kathryn at Full Life, Simple Heart, as a start. To Kim's sauce, you add pine nuts, slivers of ham, and julienned raw spinach; serve over cooked fettuccine. Another keeper. (Unfortunately, all evidence of said meal has disappeared.) Thank you, Kathryn.

So there you have it. Lesson learned. In the near future, do not buy a hunk of cheese bigger than your face.

Unless, of course, you find a really good sale.

Fudgy Rice Pudding

Bring on the leftover rice! This recipe for fudgy rice pudding is so delicious, it might even have you making extra rice on purpose. One recipe serves two or three, so multiply accordingly.

1 c. cooked rice

1 c. milk

1 T. sugar

pinch salt

1 T. butter

1/4 t. vanilla

1/4 c. chocolate chips (you can use broken bits of leftover chocolate candy from Christmas, too)

In medium saucepan, combine rice, milk, sugar, salt, and butter. Cook over medium heat about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. The last few minutes, as mixture begins to thicken, stir more often. Stir in vanilla. Place in small dishes, sprinkle chocolate chips (or bits) over pudding, and enjoy your feast.

Note: For more great ideas, go check out Works for Me Wednesday here.

Potato Rolls

I hope by now we've all been able to dispose of those Thanksgiving mashed potatoes.

Tuck this recipe away for post-Christmas, when you might once again have a few too many mashed potatoes hanging around. This was my first attempt at making potato rolls and I've gotta say, I loved 'em so much I immediately made a second batch, making 12 larger rolls for hamburgers. For 24 rolls, cook about 10 minutes, and for 12 larger hamburger buns, cook about 12 minutes.

POTATO ROLLS

1/4 c. water
1 c. milk
1 egg
1/2 c. mashed potatoes
1/4 c. shortening
1/4 c. sugar
1 1/2 t. salt
4 - 4 1/2 c. flour
1 package yeast (about 2 1/4 t.)

Place all ingredients in bread machine, on "dough" setting. When machine beeps, remove dough to a floured surface. Grease a baking sheet that has sides. Divide dough into 24 pieces and shape each piece into a roll. Place on baking sheet and let rise about an hour, until almost doubled in size.

Bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes. Serve with butter.

Note: These freeze well, too.

Chocolate-Coconut Potato Candy

If you like Mounds candy bars, you will looooove this candy. Yes, indeedy, it's made with genuine mashed potatoes. (See post below for the reason I am resorting to making candy from potatoes.)

First, pull out a 9 x 9-inch pan and tuck in a sheet of tin foil. Butter the foil while you're at it.

Next, in mixing bowl, stir together:

4 c. powdered sugar (a 16-oz. box)

4 c. flaked coconut

3/4 c. cold mashed potatoes

1 1/2 t. vanilla

1/2 t. salt

Plunk it all into the pan and stick the pan in the freezer for at least an hour. You can leave it in the freezer overnight, too, it won't get rock hard.
Cut the mixture into 1-inch by 2-inch pieces. (Actually, this candy is really rich, so 1-inch by 1-inch pieces might be even better. Do as I say, not as I do, as my grandma used to tell us.)

In small saucepan, melt about 10 ounces of baking chocolate, the semi-sweet variety. Dig out the coconut nuggets and dip them in chocolate. Cool on waxed paper, and store in the refrigerator.

Then, of course, you must eat them.

Note: go check out some more wonderful Works-for-me-Wednesday ideas here.

Can You Ever Have Too Many Mashed Potatoes?

First, you make a couple of potato "pie crusts"

which you fill with turkey and leftover gravy and freeze for later.

Next, you make a batch of potato rolls. Beautiful! Delicious!

Then you make a chocolate/potato cake.

So why are there still so many stinkin' potatoes?

Okie dokie. We'll put some cupcake papers in the cupcake tins, and fill 'em up to freeze some meal-sized mashed potatoes for some day when we're not tired of them . . . some day in February, say. Or maybe June.

Oh.

Some potato pancakes for lunch, perhaps.

And maybe another batch of these, hamburger-sized.

Perhaps you'd like some potato/coconut candy to go with those potato rolls, potato pancakes, and potato/chocolate cake.

Sigh.

Yes. The answer is yes. You can have too many mashed potatoes.

Super Simple Supper

This Bread Crumb Omelet is the perfect simple supper for when you have almost no food in the house. It is simply delicious as described here, with just garlicky-browned breadcrumbs and Cheddar cheese. (I whirl a piece of bread in the blender to get my breadcrumbs.) If you have leftover bits of meat, seafood, or vegetables in the fridge, you can add those, too. But no need.



Here, then, is the recipe, which is based on a recipe from the book In Madeleine's Kitchen by Madeleine Kamman.

SIMPLE BREADCRUMB OMELET

1 egg
1/4 t. crushed garlic
1 1/2 T. coarse bread crumbs (use blender)
1/2 T. butter
salt
1-2 T. grated Cheddar cheese
couple T. of fake crab, leftover meat, or veggies, if desired

Mix egg with garlic in small bowl. Set aside. In small non-stick skillet, place bread crumbs and butter. Over medium heat, brown bread crumbs. When crumbs are golden, WORKING QUICKLY, pour egg mixture over, sprinkle with pinch of salt, and STIR once or twice. (If you don't stir right away, you'll end up with scrambled eggs.) When omelet is about cooked -- maybe 30 seconds or so -- add the cheese and anything else you want. Roll and place on a small plate.

Yummy. And garlicky. You may need breath mints later.

Note that it's made of only one egg, so be prepared to make as many as you need to fill up yourself and whatever other stomachs you're responsible to feed. When you add fruit, a salad, roll, it's dinner.

Jana's Fried Rice

Ta da!

Fried rice.

Who knew it would be so easy?

Jana McBurney-Lin, author of the wonderful novel My Half of the Sky, has graciously shared her fried rice recipe below. Any book clubs out there, looking for a good book to read and a delicious dish to serve at your next meeting, look no further.

Here are Jana's instructions. When you're done cooking and eating, check out her blog at http://www.myhalfofthesky.blogspot.com/.

"I thought fried rice was originated in this country, the story being that a customer came in late one evening to a Chinese restaurant. The customer asked for something to eat, but all the cook had was a little of this and a little of that. Instead of turning the customer away, the cook fried up a dish of leftovers. Fried Rice.

"I did a little research though, and--while the story is similar--the history goes back forever, apparently to Yangzhou (a town between Shanghai and Nanking). I visited Yangzhou the first time I went to China. I was backpacking about, and a fellow traveler mentioned that Yangzhou had purple-sand pottery. I was nearby (in Nanking), and thought, 'Hey, I've never seen purple sand or purple sand pottery. I'll go see what this is about.' It was a tiny town. From the reactions of the children around, they probably had never seen a foreigner in the flesh. I remember walking along the dusty streets, and an old man from a tea shop beckoned me in. He wanted to chat. I didn't speak more than a handful of Chinese at the time, but we had a nice time sipping tea and smiling. (I never did find the purple pottery.)

"But back to the rice. It's easy--and just remember, if it doesn't taste right, add a bit more salt.

"Ingredients:

leftovers: meat and veggies (chicken and pork taste nice, as do bell peppers)

cold rice

3 eggs

salt and pepper

green onions

Take your leftover meat and veggies and chop up small. Take your leftover rice and set aside.(If you don't have leftover rice, make a few cups and let cool.) Take three eggs, whip them into a froth in a bowl. Add salt and pepper. If you have some green onion, chop that up.

Put 2 tablespoons of oil in a large fry pan (or wok). When the oil is heated, add the eggs and fry up til a bit sloppy. Then add your leftover rice, chopped up meat, veggies, etc. When these are heated through, turn off the heat. Sprinkle with green onion. There you have it."
Jana McBurney-Lin, Author, My Half of the Sky, http://www.myhalfofthesky.blogspot.com/

Lynn's note: Delicious. We sprinkled a dash of soy sauce on it. I'm listing it as a side dish, but I think it could count for a main dish, too.